An autumn wreath and roasted chestnuts

In celebration of the formal arrival of autumn

The past few days the chestnuts have been dropping from the big tree in the back yard, Keenan and Kaleena have been very excited about gathering these treasures, it is the first thing they do when they wake up and the last thing before going to bed. They have become master tool users in their efforts to free these treasures from their spiky shells

Today we roasted them in the oven, as they do not keep very long unless refrigerated or frozen.

We examined the difference between the chestnut and the buck eye, as the buck eyes are poisonous to eat. When they are in the shell it is easy to tell them apart as the edible chestnuts have very unfriendly shells. The one on the left is the buck eye, they are smooth all around and shinier, the edible chestnuts have a matte finish and comes to a point with a little "tail" on them.
As we are very familiar with these nuts, the children could tell them apart without problem.

To roast them I cut an X with a sharp knife on the flattest side, piercing the shell completely

then I put them all on a stainless steel pan, set them in the oven on 425 for about 30 minutes

then sprinkled with sea salt

the children both really enjoyed de-shelling them and loved the sweet potato taste of the chestnuts

While sitting outside eating our roasted chestnuts I got started with a wreath I have had in mind for a while now. We have been gathering treasures from nature for weeks now, and the piles are growing, so I decided to make a wreath that will serve as the center piece on our dining table. Inside the wreath I will place bees wax candles which I plan to make later this week.

To make the wreath I used a grapevine base and a glue gun, then I simply added any and all the things we had found. I even used the skin of the roasted chestnuts as we were pealing them. I realize that the buck eyes that I added will shrivel up some, but  think they will still look lovely.

I had a general idea of how I wanted the finished wreath to look, but really just allowed the natural flow of creativity to guide me more than anything, and so it actually turned out very different than I had initially imagined.

I  love how it turned out, and look forward to adding it to out table with a candle and a simple cloth under.

~Thanks for stopping over, and may you have a wonderful autumn season~